Chapter 2339: Dragon Qi, the Only Hope!
Seemingly unwilling to talk about himself, Master Guangcheng ended the topic.
“Hurry and take Little Nightmare with you away from this place. You are not Little Yi (Li Taiyi), and even if you manage to resolve this crisis, without a Divine Martial realm cultivation, you are still no match for Heaven. In the end, all your effort will be in vain. I can help you hide from Heaven’s senses and survive through this epoch. In the end, Heaven might not pay any more attention to you, and you will be able to live freely!” Master Guangcheng sternly said.
It was not that he was callous. He had just seen through everything and knew that constant struggle might only make the eventual pain even worse.
“‘Little Yi’? The Sage Emperor was here before?”
Wang Chong’s eyes widened as he caught onto the piece of information Master Guangcheng had revealed.
“You don’t think that you’re my only visitor, do you? If that were true, where would all those stone steles have come from?” Master Guangcheng said as if he was relating a most ordinary matter.
“It’s truly a pity. Little Yi had the best talent I’ve ever seen, and he had the greatest chance of changing everything. When he came to me, he was only in his teens, but he had managed to sensed my existence. On his body, I felt a persistence like never before, incredible talent, unrelenting effort, and outstanding perception!
“I taught him martial arts and watched him grow. On his body, I saw hope like never before. He was unprecedented, the one with the greatest chances of defeating Heaven. As long as he could reach the Divine Martial realm, Heaven would never be able to control the people again.
“Alas, he failed!”
Master Guangcheng raised his head and deeply sighed, his expression incredibly desolate and downcast.
Bang!
Like a boulder smashing into a lake, Wang Chong felt like massive waves were raging through his mind.
The Sage Emperor!
The Sage Emperor had also met with Master Guangcheng?!
Master Guangcheng had taught the Sage Emperor martial arts!
This news was too shocking and sudden. The Sage Emperor had never mentioned this, nor had he left behind anything bringing up this matter. For a moment after hearing this news, Wang Chong’s mind was blank.
But now that he thought about it, the Western Mausoleum was in the Imperial Palace, and given that the Sage Emperor’s cultivation was infinitesimally close to the Divine Martial realm, it was impossible for him to have remained ignorant about someone that was so near him.
It would have been far stranger for the Sage Emperor to not have known about Master Guangcheng.
“I know that Little Yi chose you, and I also know you have something similar to what that boy Little Grass had, but it’s all useless. I’ve already seen blind hope like this far too many times, and all that has resulted is tragedy after tragedy.
“Leave this place. Give up on everything. I don’t wish to see what happened to Little Yi happen to you as well,” Master Guangcheng said.
Wang Chong said nothing, countless thoughts running through his mind.
He suddenly felt that the cold and tough attitude put on by this teacher of Emperors was all feigned. This was the true Master Guangcheng.
And Wang Chong sensed that he had to have many secrets. The steles set up by various dynasties in the passage served as proof.
“Senior, I won’t leave. The people I’m closest to are here, my friends, teachers, family members, the woman I love… If I abandon them and survive alone, how would that be any different from death?”
Wang Chong stood up straight, his face stern and determined.
At that moment, he thought about how the Origin Immortal Lord had sacrificed his life and entrusted him with all his hopes, about the Sage Emperor who had entrusted to him the Great Tang and its millions of people, and also those hundreds of thousands of brothers from his last life had been baptized in battle together with him. All of them had trusted him without reservation and had helped him. If he fled alone, he would never be able to forgive himself.
What was the point in a rebirth like that?
Master Guangcheng looked at Wang Chong in a daze, unable to speak for some time. All of a sudden, he felt a familiar sensation overtake him.
There had been someone like Wang Chong who had sat across from him and solemnly said words just like these. Not just one, or two, or three. So many, many people.
But in the end, all of them had ‘gone’ and never returned.
At that moment, Master Guangcheng’s heart was filled with endless sorrow.
Why was it that no matter how much he tried to persuade these people, they never listened? Time and time again, they would repeat that same fate.
“Senior, Senior…”
A faint shouting could be heard in his ears, calling Master Guangcheng back to his senses.
Master Guangcheng once more saw that young face before him.
“Senior, everything has its counter, and nothing in the world is flawless. If it were, Heaven wouldn’t have been sealed. Senior, you definitely have a way, right?” Wang Chong sincerely pleaded.
Master Guangcheng had a very deep understanding of Heaven, was perhaps even the only person in the world who truly understood Heaven’s secrets. If there was one person who knew the way to deal with the Celestial Palace, it was Master Guangcheng.
Wang Chong believed that he knew a way!
“Teacher, please help Master!”
Little Nightmare also pleaded.
“Since Master has already spoken, he will not leave!”
Master Guangcheng sighed and closed his eyes.
After a long while, his voice began to resound through this space.
“There is one method that can break the Celestial Palace. You must find a way to enter the Celestial Palace and destroy it from within. But this method is extremely dangerous and has an extremely low chance of success. Even if you have a chance to get in, you might not be able to pull it off. In the end, you will just be delivering your life in vain.”
“Senior, please instruct me!” a delighted Wang Chong hastily asked.
His intuition was right. Master Guangcheng truly did know a way to deal with the Celestial Palace. As for danger, he didn’t care. What point in this ordeal had not been dangerous?
Moreover, he had the Doomsday Insignias that Heaven so dearly desired. Even if he didn’t go to find Heaven, Heaven would come to find him!
“The Celestial Palace is Heaven’s personal ritual tool, and Heaven has always placed a high value on it. Even the Supremes have never had a chance to see it. Moreover, he also placed many seals over it, making it nearly impossible to break into it from the outside,” Master Guangcheng sternly said.
Wang Chong and the Nightmare Beast exchanged a silent glance.
If what Master Guangcheng said was true, wasn’t getting inside the Celestial Palace impossible?
“I wasn’t done speaking. Heaven left a path for himself, and only through that passage can one enter the Celestial Palace. Though Heaven himself set up this passage, it’s not that difficult to enter it, because there is only condition to enter this passage: the possession of Dragon Qi!” Master Guangcheng said.
“Dragon Qi?”
Wang Chong raised an eyebrow in surprise.
“Senior, are you referring to the Qi of sovereigns?”
Since ancient times, the only ones who possessed Dragon Qi were the Sons of Heaven and the rebellious Kings, such as An Lushan.
“Correct. Theoretically, only one person besides Heaven is able to enter the Celestial Palace—the sovereigns of the surrounding countries cannot be considered as having Dragon Qi,” Master Guangcheng firmly said.
Wang Chong was rendered speechless by Master Guangcheng’s firm reply.
Though Master Guangcheng had not directly said it, his meaning was very clear. Besides Heaven, the only one who could enter the Celestial Palace was Li Heng.
“But why?”
Heaven had probably been the strongest person in the human world for countless epochs. Just as he had claimed, he was a ‘god’.
Given Heaven’s cautious attitude and behavior, why would he leave this sort of flaw in his personal ritual tool? Why would he let someone else into it?
Though Li Heng was the Son of Heaven, he was only at the Saint Martial realm. What was the connection between him and Heaven?
“It was just an accident, because countless epochs ago, Heaven was this world’s first Emperor,” Master Guangcheng sternly said.
“What?”
Wang Chong trembled, shock evident in his eyes.
Heaven’s background, which epoch he had come from, and his status had always been mysteries. Even Luo Supreme, the earliest follower of Heaven, did not know the details.
If Luo Supreme didn’t know his background, how could anyone else?
Wang Chong had never imagined that Heaven’s earliest status was the Son of Heaven, the sovereign of the world.
His mind was thrown into turmoil, and he suddenly understood why Heaven referred to himself with the royal ‘We’.
“When Heaven created this ritual tool, he believed that his dynasty would last for all time. He had never imagined that countless epochs would wax and wane, that dynasties would rise and fall. The Dragon Qi long ago ceased to be his.”
A look of recollection appeared on Master Guangcheng’s face.
“A strange set of circumstances led to this flaw in the Celestial Palace, but for Heaven, it is not much of a weakness. After all, besides him, there is only one person amongst the millions of people in this world who can go inside.”
Wang Chong frowned after hearing Master Guangcheng’s story.
Master Guangcheng was saying that only Li Heng and Heaven could enter the Celestial Palace. This would explain why Li Heng alone still remembered him and remained unaffected by the Celestial Palace.
Even so, at Li Heng’s current level of cultivation, he was incapable of destroying the Celestial Palace.
In other words, the Celestial Palace couldn’t be destroyed.
“Senior, is there no other way?” Wang Chong asked, his brow furrowed.
“If you want to get into the Celestial Palace, Dragon Qi is the only way,” Master Guangcheng firmly declared.
“But Master is not the Son of Heaven,” Little Nightmare said. This problem had seemingly pushed them into a dead end.
“Who said he wasn’t?”
Master Guangcheng’s words left the two of them shocked. He quickly turned his eyes on Wang Chong.
“I am not telling you this for no reason. Though I don’t know how you did it, you truly do have some of the Dragon Qi that only the Son of Heaven should possess.”